


Unbearable Beauty

by awintersrose



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beauty knows no gender, Bored Third, M/M, Sasori just wants to paint, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, Third has other ideas, Winter in Suna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 09:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21297335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awintersrose/pseuds/awintersrose
Summary: On a boring winter night in Suna, the Third Kazekage is seeking distractions - will an unexpected visitor warm up the evening?
Relationships: Sandaime Kazekage | Third Kazekage/Sasori
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Unbearable Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> For the SasoThird Exchange prompt - "Rubied"
> 
> This version of the Sandaime Kazekage references @thatshipcat's headcanons, which I adore.

Night falls in the desert and the wind blows fierce, with impending change redolent in each gust, as the temperature drops and the village residents withdraw to their homes. This metamorphosis, inelegant though it might be, follows an order all its own, serving a purpose as the streets quiet in preparation for the cool of the evening. While the heat of the day and its boiling temperatures even this time of year seem fit to cook a man alive in his body armor, the night and its insidious cold will do the very opposite.

Tenno greets the wind as he does most evenings, overwarm and underdressed, leisurely sipping a cup of wine as he watches the horizon from his terraced balcony. A child of the wind itself, he inhales as its invisible force surrounds him, chasing away the cares of another day if only for a few moments. Goosebumps rise on his skin, as the air grows icy cold with another rush of wind. The glow of the sun has fallen just beneath the horizon, but going indoors means certain boredom.

Winter is rife with the dull monotony of nights spent indoors keeping warm, and the season has hardly even begun. While it is true that the Kazekage has a whole village at his command, as well as a household of servants, attendants, and many other such sycophants who want nothing more than to entertain him, the prospect of it turns his stomach. They wish to entertain him as much as they wish him to entertain their wishes for status and whatever else he can give them in turn.

There is little cheer to be found in that.

No, he will make his own amusements this evening, and as his eyes fall on the embroidered edge of some exotic fabrics left by the tailor for his approval, he considers exactly what the ideal distraction might be.

Standing before the mirror, he takes his hair down from its usual topknot and examines an otherwise peerless visage in the sight reflected back at him. He’s not sure he likes what he sees - too many firm edges, and far too austere. The product of recent time spent in council meetings and little else. It is then that Tenno decides beauty is the order of the evening. Delicate, gilded beauty - bejeweled and bright. Softness and light to break up the impending gloom and cold.

In the back of his wardrobe is a collection of sorts, tucked away for safekeeping in a carved ironwood box that is lined in velvet and locked with a coded dial. Inside are priceless family heirlooms and lovers’ gifts, or possessions left behind - jewels and silks, even clothing. He rummages through the box, looking for exactly the right items, but nothing suits his fancy.

Until an image flits through his mind of exactly what he wants, on the body of a harem girl.

The harem. The royal courtesans will have exactly what he needs and more, all he must do is pay them a visit.

Which is something Tenno has not done in months, so when he arrives - unannounced, and unabashed - the young women housed there are swept into a mild-yet-polite uproar, trying to gracefully draw his attention, assuming he is there to choose one of them for company.

One by one, his golden gaze passes over each of them from head to toe before catching sight of the dressing and vanity area, where several wardrobes and chests may serve to hold exactly what he is searching for.

“Is my Lord looking for something in particular?” the attending matron asks, snapping her fingers and signaling to quiet the rising commotion.

Her action does little to force peace, but Tenno humors her all the same, walking past the girls and their attempts at allure. “You might say that. I need access to the jewel chests and cosmetics. Clothing as well.”

The matron hardly bats an eye. Perhaps Lord Third wants to pamper one of the girls for a bedroom frolic - best give him the freedom to do everything he wishes. It’s not like him, of course, but it is not her place to ask questions. She merely bows and hurries to show him where everything is stored. 

What Tenno finds is a veritable treasure trove of gold and jewels, not the most valuable ones of course, but decorative and crafted to draw the eye. To adorn. To turn even the most plain country girl into something far more tempting - delicate, exotic, and rare. Rubies call to him, set in gold, along with many pieces to match. 

Cosmetics are simple, kohl and gold dust. Perhaps a small amount of rouge to make his lips look kiss-bitten. As for the clothing, he pilfers silks from the wardrobe, but they’re still not entirely right. Not as good as something he saw…

“You there, come here.” Tenno gestures to one of the girls, looking her over as she blushes a charming shade of rosy pink and the others try not to show their envy.

She blushes even more as he steps closer and unravels her filmy overskirt along with its belt, pulling it off and into his hands. The slight iridescent shimmer is perfection and the weight of the fabric feels delicious under his fingertips.

Tenno looks at the matron and smiles. “Now I believe I have everything I need.”

He does not wait for a response before turning to make the walk back to his chambers.

The next hours find him in the baths, pampering himself in every way possible before embarking upon his attempt to create the ideal aesthetic - to become the most beautiful creature in the residence. Once satisfied, Tenno orders his chamberlain to have a rather lavish meal prepared and served in his informal receiving area, where he languishes, enjoying the food and wine.

Tenno is relaxed, entirely. And yet - still bored.

A knock on his door breaks the silence, and offers him an entirely new diversion. In the form of one scarlet-haired puppet master holding a file folder and trying to maintain a very blank expression as his eyes dart away from his leader. Tenno offers him a wide grin and licks honey from his fingertips.

Sasori had not intended to visit the Third’s chambers at all this evening, but the contents of his mission report were designated as requiring the Kazekage’s immediate review. He knew that he might be interrupting the man’s leisure, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight that greeted him upon walking through the archway of his receiving room.

On an evening like this, Lord Third, reclined on a sofa and enjoying sweets would be relatively ordinary. Only the Third does not look like the Kazekage Sasori knows. His golden eyes are limned in kohl and all the brighter for it, his navy hair freed from its topknot and crowned in a gold headdress meant for a veiled dancer, the tresses falling to his shoulders. Bare shoulders as it’s skin that is on display - skin crossed in a web of gold and countless rubies around his neck and across the sculpted muscle of his chest and arms. The rubies follow criss-crossed linked chains that run down to gold cuffs around his wrists. When he shifts, the jewelry glitters in the light, reinforcing the fact that he is unclothed down to his hips, where a low-slung silk skirt in iridescent colors is the only thing keeping the rest of him from sight.

No, he doesn’t look like the Kazekage Sasori knows. He is a work of art.

“Akasuna, you never darken my door on your own. What brings you?” Tenno drawls, picking up his wine and sipping.

It’s obvious his jounin has a report to make, but what’s the fun in diving straight to it when it means everything goes quiet again?

“My Lord, I believe these reports were to be read by you alone before being handed over to the mission office.” Sasori says, pushing the file at the Kazekage.

“Oh, well… are they critical risk?”

“No, Sir. But they do contain classified data pertaining to an enemy village.”

“Then I will read them after my meal. Why are you in such a hurry to leave, Akasuna?” Tenno smiles. “You should stay a while - have some food. It’s cold out, after all, and you live a ways away.”

Sasori tries not to shift on his feet. His hands itch for ink and a brush. Stay, oh he wishes he could stay, but he’d rather be left to his current thoughts in private. “I have errands to attend to.”

“Oh, come on now. Keep me company.”

“You’re bored, my Lord.”

Tenno laughs. “Aren’t you? Winter evenings are dreadfully dull. Isn’t it better here, with me?”

He knows the little jounin wants to run off to his workshop, which is exactly why it’s the last thing he can allow. Tenno sighs and stretches, an almost feline movement that shifts all his finery into something glittering and alive upon the rippling surface of his skin. Victory is found in the bob of Sasori’s Adam’s apple as the younger man swallows.

“You’ve not answered. Come sit - have a sweet.”

Sasori seems to dawdle for a moment in the archway, as if his feet cannot choose a path; or rather, that they want to choose the path his reasonable mind doesn’t wish to take. It’s adorable really, and Tenno regards him with an amused look, studying the set of his shoulders, and the light pulse of his jaw. Just when he thinks the young man is about to turn and beg another excuse to leave, the puppeteer surprises Tenno, crossing the room in short steps to sit on the sofa across from him.

“Oh Akasuna. Why so far away from your Kage?” he grins, picking up a small plate of desserts and beckoning with a free hand. “You can’t even reach the food from there.”

Sasori remains still for but a moment, before moving once more, careful not to touch Tenno. “I did not want to impose on your personal space, my Lord.”

Tenno gives him a soft, rumbling laugh. “If you were imposing, you’d know it. I asked for your company, didn’t I?”

“That, you did, my Lord. Though apart from my arrival being convenient, I’m not sure why.”

“Consider it a fortunate entanglement. I wanted for companionship, and was granted such a boon. It’s not for us the question the ways of the gods, now is it?” Tenno turns golden eyes on Sasori, and delights in the creeping of a ruddy blush that seems to be starting around his ears.

Picking up a pistachio confection dusted in powdered sugar, Tenno wonders what his little jounin would do if offered the sweet from his fingers. He imagines the powdered sugar blanching those plush ruby lips. Truly, Akasuna is lovely enough to be adorned in the same silks he himself wears now. But the sugar - what would it taste like from such a lush offering? Would Sasori blush like a maiden at the touch of his mouth? Shy away?

There is only one way to find out.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a kudos or a comment if you can, I would love to hear from you <3
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr: [awintersrose.tumblr.com](http://awintersrose.tumblr.com)  
Pillowfort: [www.pillowfort.io/awintersrose](http://www.pillowfort.io/awintersrose)  
Twitter: [www.twitter.com/awintersrosered](https://twitter.com/awintersrosered)


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